Recent Editorials

Music Review Criteria

Glamorization of Drug Use

Drugs will be defined as those chemicals that the US Government has determined as illegal for general use.

Depictions of drug use as acceptable behavior

Language that glamorizes drug use and abuse

Language that condones drug abuse

Graphic Violence

Lyrics depicting child beatings or child abuse

Language that implies that violence is acceptable

Language describing and condoning gross violence

Language that depicts suicide as an acceptable alternative to life

Hate Speech

Violent language used against another person or group

Use of language commonly referred to as ethnic slurs

Sexual Content

Lyrics that represent suggestions of sexual behavior such as intercourse or oral sex

Lyrics depicting rape or other sexual violence

Language that denigrates, such as “ho”

Language promoting sadism, masochism, incest or is demeaning to specific classes of people

WELCOME TO THE TOWN HALL FOUNDATION

September 2017

letter from the CEO

THE MISSION OF THE TOWN HALL FOUNDATION HAS BEEN PORTED TO THE CHRISTIAN VALUES COALITION. CHECK OUT THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE OR THEIR WEBSITE AT www.ChristianValuesCoalition.org. THF WILL BE DISSOLVED BY THE END OF 2017.

We are a group of dedicated individuals who seek to reconnect parents with their children. The Town Hall Foundation is a ten year old 501(c)3 corporation whose mission is to provide tools that will allow parents to communicate with their children in this age of advanced electronics.

We use academic studies to show the cause and effect of listening to certain music lyrics: those extolling violence, drug use, hate speech and unhealthy sexual activity. The correlation is similar to the arguments made about tobacco. If you smoke, your chances of developing cancer go up. The tobacco industry disputed the evidence for years as does the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and music artists who perform Rap music and Heavy Metal. Not all lyrics are bad. Our reviews suggest that 10% or less are the problem. But with technology, Smartphones, streaming, and IPods, our children listen to offending songs over and over and over again. After a while, they begin to act out as if the lyrics were true.

You can trace the brainwashing to the actions in Ferguson and Baltimore and the violence in the streets of Chicago. It crosses over into the classroom. In Las Vegas, the Clark County School District, CCSD, reports dropout rates in the 50% range. Teachers report to me that discipline in the classroom or rather lack thereof is the problem.

Politicians have tried to solve the problem by legislation, to no avail. The RIAA responds with First Amendment arguments at every turn. During the past ten years, we have spent the time and energy to sort out a rather eloquent solution.

If government can’t solve the problem, than who can. PARENTS. The solution is to develop a Smartphone App that links the phones of the children, 5-17, to the parent. The App will search the music lists on the child’s phone and sent an alert to the parent when a song whose lyrics are found in violation the THF guidelines. The parent receives a copy of the lyrics and the song is sequestered on the child’s phone. The parent can then discuss the appropriateness of the lyrics and even have a discussion as to how the song was acquired. If the child downloaded the song, the parent might ask on whose dime or if the song was copied from a friend, then the parent might ask, “Why are you stealing”. If the parent agrees with the THF and thinks the lyrics should not be part of their child’s upbringing, they can delete the song. If the parent agrees that the song is OK, they press a button and the song is released from sequestration. Under any circumstance a child/parent conversation is good.

The key is Parental Intervention.

The second step to gain acceptance is to form partnerships with religious institutions, social organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Big Brothers and Sisters, Professional sports leagues and PTA’s. By offering the App as a fund raiser, we can quickly reach the children that are at risk. We need your support, DOLLARS, to build the data base of objectionable music, build the App, and create a customer support infrastructure in order to implement this solution. Please consider a generous donation.

Chief Executive Officer

RIAA Policing of the Music Industry Questioned

The Recording Industry Association of America is more concerned about protecting their artists rights under the First Amendment than the rights of children not to be abused by the lyrics of some songs. On their Website they state:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

First Amendment, ratified December 15, 1791

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) takes an uncompromising stand against censorship and for the First Amendment rights of all artists to create freely. From the nation’s capital to state capitals across the country,RIAA works to stop unconstitutional action against the people who make the music of our times--and those who enjoy it."

In their published guidelines for the Parental Advisory Label they assign the assessment responsibility to each artist and recording company; not an unbiased outside monitoring standard that has uncompromising guidelines to protect our children. "The RIAA created and now administers the PAL Program. Individual record companies and artists decide which of their releases should receive a “PAL Notice” indicating that the release contains explicit content."

Self monitoring by artists leaves us with a long slippery slope. When you inspect the THF reviews, many song lyrics miss the mark by only a few words or phrases. With a standard as published by the THF, together we can protect our children and let the artists continue to express themselves.